As Deputy Leader of the Council, I have been continuing to support the Leader and Cabinet colleagues across a variety of areas within the council, and can report on some of my specific responsibilities as below.

**Market**

A meeting of the Market Advisory Group took place on 27th June. The meeting was quite well attended by Traders.

Due to the amount of work and consultation required over the coming period, the meeting agreed to the establishment of a Steering Group of about six Traders to take this forward with the Council.

Traders have been given plans of the Market layout as it currently exists and have been asked to come up with their suggestions for its reconfiguration. These will be discussed at the first meeting of the Steering Group in July. Once a preferred option is agreed all Traders will be consulted. It is hoped that changes to the configuration will not require the re-location of any Traders.

When the new configuration is agreed it will implemented, and new covers will be installed throughout the market. As previously reported, this is something that has been budgeted for in the current financial year.

Traders are very keen to modernise and have lock up stalls / units, and the Steering Group will investigate the possibility of this, although if there were to be such stalls / units they would have to be budgeted for in a future year.

**Councillor Training**

A meeting of the Councillor Development Group took place on 28th June where it was agreed that the following be included in the Councillor Development Plan 2017/18:

- A briefing on FGM
- A briefing on Benefits, particularly Housing Benefits
- Social Lettings Agency
- Section 106 Agreements and CIL and what they deliver
- First Aid Training
- Personal Safety Training

Training specifically for Planning Committee, Licencing Committee, and Audit Committee Members will be provided as required.

The Scrutiny Officer will liaise with the Borough secretary and Monitoring Officer regarding the sessions proposed by the Standards Committee.

Councillor Development and Briefing Sessions already scheduled are as follows:

- **17/07/17 - Performance Management** open to all Councillors. Two identical 1 hour sessions, one at 2.00 pm and one at 6.00 pm in the Jeffery Room. To be delivered by the Corporate Programme Delivery Manager.

- **20/09/17 - Safeguarding Refresher** open to all Councillors. Two identical 2 hour sessions, one at 2.00 pm and one at 6.00 pm in the Jeffery Room. To be delivered by the Head of Housing & Wellbeing. • **30/10/17 - Councillor Briefing session Social Lettings Agency** open to all Councillors. Two identical sessions, one at 2.00 pm and one at 6.00 pm in the Jeffery Room. To be delivered by the Head of Housing & Wellbeing.

• **12/02/18 – Data Protection Training** open to all Councillors. Two identical sessions, one at 2.00 pm and one at 6.00 pm in the Jeffery Room. To be delivered by the Senior Information Governance Officer.

Further details regarding these sessions can be obtained from Tracy Tiff. Members are asked to register to attend these events with Tracy Tiff as soon as possible.

**Scrutiny**

Cabinet will be received three Scrutiny Reports on 21st June:

- Emissions Strategy
- Homelessness
- Child Sexual Exploitation

These will be given full consideration and responded to as soon as practically possible. Due to the urgency surrounding Air Quality issues, some of the recommendations contained in the Emissions Strategy will be implemented more or less immediately, and a response to the strategy will be brought back in the near future.

**Web Casting**

Meetings are taking place to implement the Councils decision to Web Cast its meetings. We are working closely with Northamptonshire County Council who are re-procuring their service as their current contract expires in December. Milton Keynes Council is also considering Web Casting. If Milton Keynes Council resolves to Web Cast then they will become a part of the procurement process as well. This joint procurement process will ensure greater value for money. We should be able to start Web Casting either late in 2017 or early 2018.

**Street Lighting**

A further meeting of the Officer / Member Working Group took place on 19th June. Notes of the meeting are available.

The priority remains to establish a complete and accurate asset register of NBC / NPH owned street lights. Balfour Beatty are assisting in this. The records of NBC and NCC (Balfour Beatty) are currently being examined and duplicate records are being removed.

Once the asset list is complete and accurate it is proposed to commission a contractor to complete a condition survey of the lights, subject to budget provision. This will inform how we go forward to ensure that NBC and NPH have safe, efficient, and well maintained lights.

The Working Group will consider the replacement of the missing ornate lights on South Bridge at its next meeting.

**Councillor Phil Larratt**

**Deputy Leader of the Council**